Mediation extended in fight over $9 bln in Nortel assets

Jan 22 (Reuters) - A mediator overseeing creditornegotiations in Nortel Networks' bankruptcy said on Tuesday heis extending talks over how to distribute about $9 billion incash at the fallen telecom.

Ontario Chief Justice Warren Winkler said in a statement themediation, scheduled to end at noon on Tuesday, had beenextended, but did not say for how long.

A spokesman for the mediator declined to give detail on thelength of the extension.

Nortel, once the largest telecoms equipment makerin North America, filed for bankruptcy in 2009, hampered byaccounting problems and failing to recover from the burst of the1990s tech bubble. It went on to raise $9 billion after sellingits assets, but never resolved how to divide the value amongcreditors in Canadian, U.S. and European insolvency proceedings.

Winkler, as mediator, has been trying to reach a settlementto allocate that money through more than a week of talks in aToronto hotel.

Dividing the money has proven a vexing exercise, one Winklercalled "one of the most complex transnational legal proceedingsin history."